Police advise register your new mobile

John A. MacInnes

With mobile phones and electronic devices featuring high on Christmas wish lists each year, Police Scotland is advising people to register them to secure their safety.

New figures have revealed almost 5000 phones were reported lost in the Glasgow area alone last year.

With around half of this figure - 2500 – handed into police offices across the city, only 25 per cent are reunited with their owners as many are password-protected and inaccessible.

Police are urging mobile phone users to register their gadgets with www.immobilise.com - a free registration service linked in with the National Mobile Property Register - which can help return lost or stolen devices to their rightful owners.

With many people partying over the festive period, police expect a high number of phones to be reported lost and handed in, along with passports, which many use to verify their age in pubs and clubs.

Safer Communities officers are advising people to keep a tight rein on identification documents after around 1,500 passports were reported lost in Glasgow last year. Whilst it’s important that young people have identification on them, it’s crucial that people keep official documents safe, especially when on a night out.

Inspector Kenny Quigley, Glasgow Safer Communities, said: “Nowadays lots of people live their lives on their phones. Losing your phone is a major inconvenience, could prove expensive to replace and may lead to personal details and information being compromised.

“The difficulty for police is matching the phone to its owner. Registering it allows us to check it against the police National Mobile Property Register, find out who it belongs to and then get it back the owner as soon as we can.”